


The Breeze Coming Through The Sliding Doors

by LittleLinor



Category: Cardfight!! Vanguard
Genre: Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Very Vaguely Implied Kurozumi If You Squint
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-06
Updated: 2018-09-06
Packaged: 2019-07-07 12:45:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 822
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15908544
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleLinor/pseuds/LittleLinor
Summary: In the wake of his father's death, Kazumi decides to make the best of his position as heir.





	The Breeze Coming Through The Sliding Doors

**Author's Note:**

> Set a few years into the future. Kazuma is around 20 or just above it.

“Wow, they sure haven't spent money redecorating,” is the first thing Kazuma says as he walks into the room Kazumi is still standing in, his nerves so frayed they're a breath away from unraveling, despite his composed face.  
His heart catches; his breath hitches. Even when the maid came to tell him that his brother was at the door, he couldn't actually picture it happening. Kazuma has been gone for so long, and he has no good memory of the place that Kazumi can think of. Why would he come back here, of his own volition?  
He stays, frozen, as Kazuma gives him a small side smile and walks closer.  
“Must be why they're so loaded,” he jokes, trying to relieve the tension, to cheer up his clearly frozen older brother.  
Kazumi, helpless, can do nothing but smile in return.  
“… are you holding up okay?” Kazuma asks quietly, once they're close, almost close enough to hug and close enough not to be overheard easily.  
“Yes. I'm fine.”  
Which is both not true and incredibly true. The weight of following after his father is crushing. Knowing that he's finally free from his shadow, his words, his violence? Incredibly freeing, something in him that had never been okay as far as he can remember finally waking up. The guilt at his predominant emotion regarding his father's death being _relief_? Eating at him like acid at his stomach, both stabbing painful cramps into his chest.  
“What brings you here?” he asks quietly, his carefully built composure crumbling with his little brother so close, a reminder of who he really is.  
Kazuma snorts.  
“You, silly. Wanted to see how you were doing. Hope they're not all making your life difficult.”  
Kazumi smiles, amused and a little bitter. 'Difficult' is an understatement when it comes to some of his family members, not least his mother. But the staff, on the other hand, always seemed to prefer him to his father, and several of them have turned into unexpected allies now that his father's shadow no longer looms over them and their livelihoods.  
“There's some good and some bad. I'll manage.”  
“You don't have to do this, you know,” Kazuma says more quietly, his eyes staring into his with a gentle firmness.  
“… no, I want to. This is my chance to set things right. For once… for once, I can actually make a change for the better.”  
Kazuma frowns.  
“You don't owe anyone anything.”  
Kazumi shakes his head.  
“I want to.”  
He hasn't spent his childhood, his teenage years finding day to day reasons to stay alive, only to give up on the position for which he suffered so much. There's no way he'll let all of that, let _losing Kazuma_ for several years have been for nothing.  
Kazuma sighs, resting a hand on Kazumi's shoulder and rubbing at it with his thumb, gently.  
“Well if you're not gonna change your mind… what I came here to say is… do you want me to come back?”  
“What!? _No_!”  
His outburst is so instantaneous that Kazuma's eyes flicker with hurt before he seems to catch on to what Kazumi actually meant.  
“Your life here was terrible,” Kazumi explains, “I don't want to put you through that again, even if Father is no longer here. Most of the family would still treat you horribly… even if you're much stronger now, I don't want to expose you to their rudeness and contempt.”  
“Because yours wasn't?”  
“It…”  
He trails off. There's no way he can deny that this house and its inhabitants hurt him. But so much of that was due to his own weakness, and it still doesn't compare to what Kazuma had to live through.  
Without leaving him time to order his thoughts back into an argument he can make sound solid enough, Kazuma takes another step and hugs him, as tightly as Kazumi had when he was torn from Gyze's hold.  
For the second time that day, Kazumi's brain goes blank.  
“I'm not letting you head back in here alone,” Kazuma hisses in his ear. “You asked me back into your life, now you're stuck with me, sorry. Unless you're gonna order me not to?”  
And just like that, the storm in Kazumi's head falls, the sea of his feelings quieting.  
“… no,” he whispers, hugging back. “No I won't.” And then, more quietly, “Thank you, Kazuma.”  
“Don't mention it,” Kazuma mutters, back to his usual easy embarrassment now that his point is made, and the switch in is voice is so _cute_ Kazumi almost laughs. “Anyway. If those assholes give you shit, do you want me to sic Shindou on them? Anjou told me he's _really_ good at delivering smackdowns and I've been wanting to join in on the popcorn for a while.”  
The thought of unleashing Chrono's rage on his mother is in equal parts tempting, mortifying, and _terrifying_ , and Kazumi immediately shudders.  
“I… I think I'll manage.”


End file.
